Apocalyptic Fate
by Sarryn
Summary: Two thousand years in the future Gaea and Earth will be merged to form a new planet. Unfortunately a millennium after this joining it will under go cataclysmic disasters. The Atlanteans will have to call upon the one who can save it. *Disturbing*
1. Preface

Preface  
  
Two thousand years in the future Earth and Gaea will be joined to form the planet known as New Eden. The necessity for this came when Gaea began to experience all consuming war and natural disasters on an apocalyptic scale. The Atlanteans who had formed that pristine world out of pure will were now gods; without will for they were Will. A planet born of will needs that same power to sustain it and while the Atlanteans were Will they were unable to maintain Gaea. As a result it began to deteriorate over an extended period of time, starting with the Destiny Wars and ending with the birth of the Child.   
  
The Child brought the two worlds, Earth born of natural universal force and Gaea born of the force of pure will, together in order to prevent Gaea's destruction. By doing this the Child sacrificed herself and sealed her essence along the gaps in reality between the two planets.   
  
In effect she had died, the last true offspring of the Atlanteans. She was a being trapped in limbo between the realities of mortality and immortality. Neither a god nor a mortal, but residing in the void between the two. She was born to die and fulfilled her purpose in saving Gaea as was the desire of the godly Atlanteans.  
  
But a millennium after that joining New Eden will no longer be able to sustain life and its own existence. The forces of the original two planets are too contrary to coexists for long. As a result the same pointless wars and natural disasters that afflicted Gaea during her final independent existence as a planet began to happen on New Eden.   
  
The Atlanteans resurrected the Child to prevent the final destruction.  
  
The Apocalyptic Fate.  
  
  
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Okay this is the preface as the name suggests and next will be the prologue and then the meat of the story will come. This is one crazy idea, that I am well aware of, but please review anyway and tell me what you think. This is definitely more serious than my others are, much darker because we're dealing with Armageddon here folks. So REVIEW or your house will fall prey to rabid Spam!  



	2. Prologue: the Four Trials

Prologue: the Four Trials  
  
  
Geysers of flame erupted from the living ground, spewing forth as if to sear the heavens. The burned dead moaned silently as their flesh was consumed by the raging inferno. Grand forests of deepest green turned black as the flames entrapped them, leaving stunted piles of blackened ash in their wake.   
  
Still the people fought for a war that held no meaning, fighting despite the fact that most were being killed by the elements and not by human contrivance.  
  
Rivers, streams and lakes overflowed their banks and rushed exuberantly through fields and cities, grabbing those unlucky enough to be caught in their path. From coast to coast the tumultuous sea swelled and groaned, pushing liquid tentacles deep within human habitations. With every violent crash of bloody water, bloated and water-gorged bodies were seen as they rode a never-ending ride of death.   
  
Yet the angry masses raised their guns and fired upon each other, as if they were invincible. As if their fighting would accomplish something.   
  
From the living ground great flows of mud moved with surprising alacrity and entombed men, women and children as statues. The huddled people raising their hands in futile defense encased for all eternity, how ever long that would last, in the once forgiving earth. This was reminiscent of Pompeii. Just as the ash and mud suffocated the hapless inhabitants of the town beneath its destructive peak, so too did the mud extinguish all that it enveloped.   
  
With angry cry the oblivious humans fought on for it is in their very nature to destroy themselves. Those who were not fighting prayed to some god above to accept their polluted souls.  
  
Trees, cars, people were smashed together in a bacchanalia of destruction. Hurricane force winds swept tirelessly across New Eden, grabbing everything in its path and hurtling it to the seething ground below. The screams of thousands filled the ceaselessly moving air as it flung deadly projectiles with malicious intent. Burning embers spiraled gloriously among the raging funnels of destruction.   
  
This was humanity's apocalyptic fate. The endless and pointless fighting and the destruction of their once perfect world.   
  
This was the sight that greeted the Child's resurrection. Her multi-colored eyes opened to witness the final moments of Armageddon. Around her stood four mute entities, the elemental demons that thrived upon the chaos all around.   
  
She knew their names, their purposes, even as she couldn't completely comprehend her own.  
  
The first was the elemental demon of fire. A burned corpse still issuing corrupting smoke while small flames burned across its charred flesh and blackened bones.   
  
The second was that of water. Pale and translucent flesh sloughed off of the bloated form and its mildewed clothes were forever dripping wet.   
  
The third demon was known as earth. This being was caked in bloody mud, bits of plants and bones of those buried alive stuck to the viscous substance.  
  
The fourth and final elemental demon was air. Its visage and form were hidden by windswept linen that churned restlessly about it.   
  
They watched her with burning eyes, searching for the life that dwelled within the dying fools below. When they found none, nothing to toy with and then destroy, they began to wail. Their keening cry pierced her newborn ears and blood began to trickle slowly from her nose and eyes.  
  
The Atlanteans had gathered what they could of her essence, but they had been unable to collect all of it. If they had then New Eden would have began to self-destruct at an exponential rate. So she had been born with a fraction of her previous experience and knowledge.   
  
I have died, she thought with something akin to sadness. Now she was once again as close to living as she would ever be. But what was her reason for being reborn?  
  
The deathly wailing continued as the demons attempted to summon back her forgotten past from the rents in the combined reality of New Eden. She knew they wanted her to stop them and at the same time didn't want her to. Their reasoning was very simple: if they continued with their wanton annihilation of all life then in the end there would be nothing left to destroy. They would be without purpose and cease to exist.   
  
The elemental demon of fire grabbed her tender arms in its burning grasp and dragged her off the mountain where they had stood. She screamed and writhed in pain as it flung her among the battling humans. As she watched it summoned a burst of flame that seared the combatants till all that remained were charred cadavers clutching melted weapons. She screamed as the flames branded her flesh and boiled the water within her body.  
  
Satisfied that she had learned all that she could from it, fire took her burned body back to the mountain.   
  
Next the watery demon took possession of her and dragged her to the flooded cities of the coast. It pulled her among the frigid waves and forced her to float among the blue corpses that it had claimed. She sobbed as their gelatinous flesh stuck fast to her own and their lifeless limbs knocked against her own. With a jittering laugh the elemental demon of water pushed her beneath the crimson waves into the coldest depths of the sea. Water filled her mouth and traveled into her lungs, filling them, killing her.   
  
Before she could pass out the demon resurfaced and took her back to the mountain.   
  
She stood shivering pitifully as she was carried away by earth. It took her to witness and experience the death of a family. She lay beside them as the living mud mercilessly encapsulated them, cutting of their screams. The Child opened her mouth to scream in protest, only to let the thick mud coat her mouth and lungs. Its cold weight pressed into her, crushing her ribcage and bursting vital organs. The cries of the children and baby were cut off as they too succumbed to the power of the earth.   
  
Hemorrhaging inside she was unearthed and brought back to the mountain.   
  
The fourth and final demon embraced her, its cold body freezing the Child's poor, defeated body. And then they were flying through the frozen air to dance among the burning tornadoes. It forced her to waltz as around them objects were thrown with incredible, deadly violence. They glided among those fighting, those who cared not as their comrades and enemies were picked up like toys and flung into the ground about them. She wept and the tears froze to her burnt cheeks.   
  
"I remember now. I remember now," she whispered soundlessly, the breath stolen from her lungs.   
  
The elemental demon of air brought her back to the mountain and placed her almost tenderly on the seething ground. Together the four entities regarded the shattered Child impassively. As the earth flowed with the water and slowly entombed her faltering life-vessel they remained unmoved. When the wind came and dried the shell and the fire baked it hard, they felt nothing.  
  
Once again the Child had died, yet her sacrifice had not been completed. Her trials were not quite over. Her existence still depended on the safety of Gaea and the Earth.  
  
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I think that was the most disturbing thing I have ever written in my entire life. A stroll through Armageddon is always a nice way to start off. I even creeped myself out with that one. Anyway, REVIEW and I'll show you how morbid this can get. Are you ready to face the Apocalyptic Fate?  



	3. Crystal Angel

Apocalyptic Fate  
  
Chapter One: Crystal Angel  
  
  
A nondescript white lamp cast its burnished light upon the weary writer. The computer screen flickered uncertainly, lighting the young woman's face in an eerie glow. Listlessly Hitomi Kanzaki tapped the backspace key on her keyboard. Her work was nearly complete, the trilogy that had consumed her mind and soul, her own personal diary and memory catcher.   
  
As the years had passed since her return from Gaea she had felt the memories of her experiences there fading like the stars in the face of the dawn. Desperately she had clung to them, the friendships forged and her love of Van. But time had slowly robbed her of those precious remembrances. She refused to let it though, so she had placed her life there on the digital pages of her computer.  
  
Appropriately enough the trilogy was called "The Forgotten Memories of Gaea" and was nearly complete. Complete except for the last chapter of the last book. There she had encountered the most steadfast obstacle since she had begun her endeavor. How would she end it? Should she type how she longed the story to end? To let her heroine stay with her one true love? But that was a sweet lie that she couldn't go through with in good conscious. Still...  
  
Hitomi emitted a soft shriek as the shutters of her bedroom window banged loudly against the wall. She pressed a trembling hand to her heart and stared at the offending window with disgust. A cold wind blew through the aperture bringing with it hints of the cold weather slowly approaching. Winter, what a desolate time of the year, she thought morosely.   
  
Rubbing her arms she stood up and walked to the window. As she grasped the shutters and began to shut them a blinding light enveloped her. She gasped as the breath was torn from her lungs and a deathly scream boiled up from the depths of the light.  
  
Hitomi looked up at the open window, a puzzled frown marring her brow. She could have sworn she had gotten up to close it. Shaking her head she walked to the window and touched the shutters. As before a blinding light engulfed her and a horrible scream ripped through her mind.   
  
And then she was sitting down again looking up at the open window. And again she was bathed in ivory brilliance upon attempting to shutter the window. Through a thousand different images, mirrors to the past and future, she saw herself attempt to close the window, only to be lifted by a coruscating refulgence. The pictures duplicated upon themselves and produced a thousand counterfeits, each one clasping close a violent tumult of timeless screams. Ancient words that hovered on the edge of understanding, but slipped teasingly into obscurity before fully comprehended.   
  
With a horrible cry Hitomi Kanzaki was flung into abrupt wakefulness. Silver fishes swam placidly across her computer screen; the screensaver had been activated. With a wince she gently rubbed her sore neck. Apparently she had fallen asleep at her computer.   
  
THE END  
  
She blinked in bewilderment at what the glowing screen showed her as she touched the mouse. She had finished? When had she? The last thing she remembered was wondering how she WAS going to finish it. A puzzled line appeared on her forehead as she regarded the ambiguous words with wonder.   
  
Hesitantly she reached for the mouse again, determined to see just what her slumbering mind had conjured into reality. As she scrolled up a silent cry filled the room. The blood drained form her face as she turned away to look across her room.   
  
For all intents and purposes the shimmering stars had fallen silently from the heavens and were coalescing before her bed, or at least that is how it appeared. Slowly they enfolded each other and then ran together in a reticular pattern. An ever-increasing pressure pushed mercilessly against her ears, she felt like she had just been dropped into the crushing depths of the ocean.   
  
With a scintillating sigh the brilliance burst outward, bits of glowing dust flowed past her face. When the resplendence finally faded away Hitomi was shocked to see the creature standing before her. A woman of ageless beauty stood there, enfolded in an air of tranquil determination. The cold wind blew softly against her pale lavender robes and sifted through her ebon locks. Multi-colored eyes regarded the terrified young woman with overflowing compassion.   
  
"Hitomi," the blazing woman intoned in a voice that flowed from the seething depths of time. "Come with me. Your story has not ended yet." With a long suffering sigh the woman arched her back, the sound of chimes filled the room as a pair of crystal wings exploded from her delicate shoulders.   
  
"An Atlantean," the young woman breathed, a tremulant hand pressed to her lips. Indeed the being before her could be no other creature, but her crystal wings were something that she had never seen an Atlantean bearing.   
  
The winged woman held out an elegant pale hand to her. There was something so wonderfully desperate and bravely determined about the woman that she found herself responding to the silent plea. With trepidation she clasped the offered hand.  
  
She cried out as the being's flesh burned and chilled her own to painful proportions. She tried to remove her hand from the other's grasp but was unable. With a powerful strength that defied anything she knew she found herself held in a painful embrace.   
  
A dark wind roared around them as all consuming light filled the room. Her pained scream was cut off as the two disappeared without a trace.  
  
A single crystal feather drifted down upon the abandoned keyboard.  
  
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Don't have anything to say except REVIEW. If you don't you won't know what is going to happen to Hitomi.   



	4. Heir to the Future, Part 1

Apocalyptic Fate  
  
Chapter 2: Heir to the Future, Part 1  
  
  
A golden sun hung pregnant above the sharply sloping mountains, golden rays gently caressing the brilliant city situated between the apex of two wild mountain ranges. But night was steadily encroaching upon the light's territory and there was nothing to do but submit to the inevitable. As darkness flowed into the sheltered land one by one pinpricks of light dotted the sky surrounding a glowing sphere of blue and a radiant orb of silver. In the city small illuminations also shone, their light the palest counterfeit of that above.  
  
From the valley below the magnificent palace on a hill a stiff wind blew. Gauzy white curtains fluttered angrily in rebellion of such careless treatment by the zephyr. That same current of air caused the candle flame to jump erratically above the wick.   
  
King Van Fanel watched these things and more with a listless sort of interest. Every since Hitomi Kanzaki had left there was little to amuse him. The war was over and Zaibach had been divided lavishly among the victorious allies. Each sovereign country taking whatever slice of the lifeless country they wanted. That had been seven long and lonely years ago.  
  
With another dejected sigh he turned over on his side on the spacious bed, black hair in disarray. Alone again. Sure there were plenty of women willing to 'comfort' the lonely king, but he was only tempted for a moment before he saw another, sweeter face superimpose those of the court beauties.  
  
"I've rebuilt it. I did it..." He felt pride, but what was the point when he couldn't look over it all, everything he had rebuilt, with the one whom he had shared so much with? But he was king and his country had to come first over his own happiness. Wasn't that what his advisors had said so many times? That and the fact that he needed to marry and produce an heir.   
  
Suddenly a brilliant light burst through the room, followed swiftly by a wind that chilled and burned with ferocious intensity. Swirling through the chaotic explosion were screams of death and confusion. All these bombarded the king's poor ears as the winds whipped the curtains and sheets angrily. It hurt so badly, the screams, the light, and the wind. His body was a seething mass of tortured nerve endings.  
  
Then all was silence and the agony was a teasing whisper underneath his skin. Slowly he opened his whiskey brown eyes and gazed upon a most startling being. A woman of ageless beauty stood there, crystal wings extended to brush the sides of the large room. Her pale lavender robes swirled gently about her bare feet as she advanced upon him.   
  
He recoiled, feeling his heartbeat pound with fearful power. The woman's strange, multicolored eyes watched him carefully, catching each frightened movement. Slowly her magnificent wings folded into her back with the sound of crystal chimes.   
  
"Who...What?" he demanded scooting away from her. She shook her head sadly and then deposited a heavy burden on the bed beside him.  
  
"I have brought you a bride, my lord. Together the distant future shall be rewritten and fate shall be changed," she whispered her voice soft and mellifluous. It sounded almost like a warning or a premonition of something dark to come. She didn't smile once as she stepped back and faded in another painful explosion of refulgence.   
  
When the brilliant afterimages faded from his lids he opened his eyes and for the first time looked upon the burden the strange woman-an Atlantean?-had brought.   
  
His eyes widened and he whispered one word, "Hitomi?"  
  
  
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Thanks for reading, short okay I know, but please REVIEW because that makes me happy.   



	5. Heir to the Future, Part 2

Apocalyptic Fate

Chapter 2: Heir to the Future, Part 2

A piercing wail burst forth, deafening the ears of those present, but this cry was of life and not the destruction of the future. The proud King of Fanelia and now proud father held his newborn son gently, admiring the wrinkled red face and the tiny limbs. His loving wife, queen and mother lay tiredly on the birthing bed, her face pale but happy, small trickles of sweat glistening at her temples. 

"My son, our son," Van whispered reverently as the baby emitted a small burping cry. He couldn't believe such joy was possible yet he was feeling it and looking at his wife's face he could tell she felt the same.

"What are you going to name him, love?" Hitomi asked softly, admiring the scene her two loves made in the soft candlelight. 

"I think…Folken," he replied a look of profound sorrow entering his eyes.

"That's wonderful, Van," the woman told him, a bittersweet happiness seizing her heart. It seemed as though he had finally reconciled his feelings of anger towards his deceased brother, now he could only look to the future. 

He was about to say more but terrible, yet familiar, wind burst through the room. A deep, soulless shriek flowed around, pain running fiery across their exposed flesh. Instinctively Van shielded little Folken from the wind and blinding light. And then all motion ceased small slivers of iridescence suspended in the air. With a keening moan time started hesitantly and the agony faded to a dull throb, and then that too was gone. 

The king and queen stared in horrified fascination as a familiar, yet nevertheless strange, figure manifested. The glowing being that had haunted their memories since their reunion was back, crystal wings and all. Her multicolored eyes surveyed the scene impassively before she glided over to the paralyzed king.

"The triggers have not all be set," the woman announced, voice echoing from antiquity. Ever so gently she took little Folken away from his father, cradling him in her gloved embrace. Hitomi remembered the pain the being's flesh created against her own and was glad she had graced their small son with such preventative measures.

"You will be king, you shall carry the seed of Destiny inside as will all your descendents, untill as such time as my second calling," the woman told the newborn, her voice compassionate and cold at the same time. "Only those that bear my gift shall rule. Only those who are king shall have the silver wings." Gently she placed her burning lips upon the baby's brow. The child's scream was horrible to hear, but the parents were unable to rescue their offspring. 

With an exultant cry the winged being held the child aloft above her head. A resounding gasp sounded throughout the deathly quiet room at the sight of the small silver wings expanding from the infant's shoulders. 

"I have marked him and his heirs," she told Van and Hitomi, addressing them for the first time since her arrival. "Only those bearing my gift will rule this country, only those will have my blessing and that of the Atlanteans. If anyone else rises to power the future is doomed."

She placed the weeping child in their arms and vanished in a brilliant agony. 

Her will had been proclaimed and it would be followed. Only those bearing the gift of sliver wings would rule Fanelia.

End Chapter 2: Heir to the Future, Part 2

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I would appreciate it if many, many people reviewed. As a warning this is the last time any original Escaflowne characters will be seen, the rest is placed near the apocalypse, which is like a thousand years in the future, so they're most likely dead. If they're not then they're either vampires or immortal, which they aren't. Anyway REVIEW and I'll get the next one out as soon as I have deemed I have received enough to be worthwhile. 


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